OFFICE YOGA

Do you spend long hours at a stretch sitting at your office desk with little to no daily exercise? Do you feel drained in mind, body and soul after a long tiring day at work? Do you suffer from constant shoulder, neck and back pain after a hard day at work? If the answer is yes, then you certainly need to get proactive about your mental and physical health. You must be thinking how is it possible to do so while sitting at your desk Well, yoga is the way for you! Office yoga will not only help you combat mental and physical stress by relaxing your muscle tensions but also improve your concentration levels, along with increasing your productivity.
For a long time I had been receiving a lot of e-mails and queries from people who spend long hours in office and were seeking some tips that could help them find a solution to this problem. So, I decided to speak with one of the finest yoga experts in Dubai, Fatima Garcia De Andres, at 136.1 Yoga Studio (www.136point1.ae) where she showed us some amazing yoga postures that would help one ease their back, neck and shoulder muscles while in office. Here are few exercises and postures that you can easily practice at your office:

1) Shoulder Rotation: Inhale while you lift your shoulders upward moving them into the backward direction. Slowly exhale as you move them in a downward and frontward direction. Repeat the rotation clockwise and anti-clockwise at least ten times each.
2) Slow Neck Flexes: Slowly raise your neck up as you inhale, and then bend your neck down as you exhale. Repeat this for eight to ten times.
3) Side Bend – Neck Exercise: Bend your neck towards the sides from left to right and vice versa. Repeat this for eight to ten times.
4) Neck Rotation: Now rotate your entire neck in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction for a couple of times. Begin this exercise, with your head bent down in the forward direction. Inhale while you bend your neck in the right direction and exhale while you bend it towards your left.
5) Gomukhasana: Put both your hands behind your back and hold them together. If it is not possible to clasp, don’t try too hard; just stretch your fingers comfortably towards one another. Hold this posture for a few breaths. Now, slowly release with an exhalation. Repeat this couple of times. Change into the other side and repeat the exercise.
6) Gurudasana: Sit erect and stick both your arms together in a 90 degree angle. Now cross your arms so that your right arm is above the left and interlock your arms and press your palms together with the tips of your fingers pointing upwards. Hold this posture for a few breaths and then slowly release. Repeat a few times.
Watch Fatima do it for you and practise it right away:
VIDEO
All the above exercises will help you de-stress and make you feel re-energised once again.
Personal Tip: Engage in some deep breathing between intervals, whenever you find a few minutes. It really helps remove toxins from the body and enables healthy functioning of the organs.
Also stretch your arms and legs during regular intervals.
Is there anything – exercise or yoga – that you do at your office which has proved helpful to you? Do share with me and all our viewers.
Love and Health
Uma